Something worth bearing in mind, particularly by Lady Drivers.
A bit of useful advice - it is true, someone has asked the Dorset Police. It's been said that this number works
in the UK

Thought you should know this....The number does work from a mobile This actually happened to someone's daughter.

Lauren was 19 yrs old and in college.
This story takes place over the Christmas/New Year's holiday break. It was the Saturday before New Year
and it was about 1.00pm in the afternoon, and Lauren was driving to visit a friend , when an UNMARKED police car pulled up behind her and put its lights on.

Lauren'sparents have 4 children (of various ages) and have always told them never to pull over for an unmarked caron the side of the road, but rather wait until they get to a service station, etc.

So Lauren remembered her parents' advice, and telephoned 112 from her mobile phone . This connected her to the police dispatcher. She told the dispatcher that there was an unmarked police car with a flashing red
light on his rooftop behind her and that she would not pull over right away but wait until she was in a service
station or busy area .

The dispatcher checked to see if there was a police car where she was and there wasn't and he told her to
keep driving, remain calm and that he had back-up already on the way. Ten minutes later 4 police cars surrounded her and the unmarked car behind her.

One policeman went to her side and the others surrounded the car behind. They pulled the guy from the car
and tackled him to the ground the man was a convicted rapist and wanted for other crimes.
I never knew that bit of advice, but especially for a woman alone in a car, you do not have to pull over for an
UNMARKED car.

Apparently police have to respect your right to keep going to a "safe" place. You obviously need to make some signals that you acknowledge them (i.e.,put on your hazard lights) or call 112 like Lauren did. Too bad the cell phone companies don't give you this little bit of wonderful information.
So now it's your turn to let your friends know about 112. This is good information that I did not know!!!!!
Please pass on to all your friends, especially any females."

Girls
I'd never heard of 112 so I called it and it really is emergency services.

Wonder if the number is more likely to be known to those involved in international travel to those who do not.

In my view lives could be lost unless the number is better publicised for UK residents as a whole.

You will see that the person originally posting this office email telephoned 112 to check that it was genuine.

When I was given a copy of the email I questioned whether the details might be a hoax. Before I could advise otherwise the provider actually rang the 112 to check it out.

If significant numbers of people are doing this it may well prevent a genuine calls from getting through. Furthermore the emergency service have to monitor the phone until it is switched off (presumably to cover violent situations) and so the check calls take time to clear.

To help the emergency services it would be useful if you make sure your friends are aware of this 112 number and that it a genuine contact for emergencies.

In addition, many emergency call handling centres need technology upgrades to enable them to handle the “automatic” emergency calls (eCalls) that cars will soon be able to make in the event of a crash, even if the driver is unconscious. eCall systems can report your exact location to the emergency services, provided that they are able to process the data. If all cars in Europe were equipped with eCall technology, it could cut emergency response times in rural areas by up to 50% and in urban areas up to 40%, saving up to 2,500 lives per year.

Article 26 of the Universal Service Directive (2002/22/EC) states that Member States must ensure that calls from fixed and mobile phones to 112 are free of charge. Furthermore, the handling of the calls must be appropriate. This should be enhanced by enabling emergency centres to process caller location information. Member States should also publicise 112 as the single European emergency number.

In February 2005, the Commission and Europe’s automotive industry agreed on an action plan that aims at ensuring that eCall is available in all new cars from 2009.

I got this information in an email. There was more stuff tagged onto the end which made me think it was less than credible. I'm glad to see it cleared up. Is all of the information below REAL??
THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW YOUR CELLPHONE COULD DO...

There are a few things that can be done in times of grave emergencies.

Your mobile phone can actually be a life saver or an emergency tool for survival. Check out the things that you can do with it:

1. The Emergency Number worldwide for **Mobile** is 112.*

If you find yourself out of coverage area of your mobile network and there is an emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network to establish the emergency number for you, and interestingly this number 112 can be dialled even if the keypad is locked. **Try it out. **

2. Subject: Have you locked your keys in the car? Does you car have remote keys? This may come in handy someday. Good reason to own a cell phone: If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone at home on their cell phone from your cell phone. Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the person at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone on their end. Your car will unlock. Saves someone from having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no object. You could be hundreds of miles away, and if you can reach someone who has the other "remote" for your car, you can unlock the doors (or the trunk).

Editor's Note: *It works fine! We tried it out and it unlocked our car over a cell phone!"*

3. Subject: Hidden Battery power

Imagine your cell battery is very low, you are expecting an important call and you don't have a charger. Nokia instrument comes with a reserve battery. To activate, press the keys *3370# Your cell will restart with this reserve and the instrument will show a 50% increase in battery. This reserve will get charged when you charge your cell next time.

4. How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone?

To check your Mobile phone's serial number, key in the following digits on your phone: * # 0 6 #. A 15 digit code will appear on the screen. This number is unique to your handset. Write it down and keep it somewhere safe. When your phone get stolen, you can phone your service provider and give them this code. They will then be able to block your handset so even if the thief changes the SIM card, your phone will be totally useless.

You probably won't get your phone back, but at least you know that whoever stole it can't use/sell it either.

If everybody does this, there would be no point in people stealing mobile phones.

To check your Mobile phone's serial number, key in the following digits on your phone: * # 0 6 #. A 15 digit code will appear on the screen. This number is unique to your handset. Write it down and keep it somewhere safe. When your phone get stolen, you can phone your service provider and give them this code. They will then be able to block your handset so even if the thief changes the SIM card, your phone will be totally useless.

Originally Posted by japonica42

When you get your new phone, you can call up your provider and give them the number from the side of the box. Most will register it on your account, then you can call up anytime and have it locked without repeating the number.